


Writing themes: Mad Men, Buffy, and SPN

by yourlibrarian



Series: Reviews [7]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Mad Men, Supernatural
Genre: F/M, Gen, Infidelity, Meta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-06
Updated: 2016-05-06
Packaged: 2018-06-06 18:33:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6765151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yourlibrarian/pseuds/yourlibrarian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I found it interesting that the Mad Men episode this season in which Marti Noxon and Cathryn Humphris collaborated should turn out the be the most soap operatic episode yet. I couldn't help thinking about two other stories Noxon and Humphris had penned, "New Moon Rising" and "Sex and Violence" respectively.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Writing themes: Mad Men, Buffy, and SPN

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted October 29, 2009

I found it interesting that the Mad Men episode this season in which Marti Noxon and Cathryn Humphris collaborated should turn out the be the most soap operatic episode yet. I couldn't help thinking about two other stories Noxon and Humphris had penned, "New Moon Rising" and "Sex and Violence" respectively, both of which involved infidelity, men with an identity crisis, and the destruction of a long term relationship. 

"Sex and Violence" is all about the other woman, for example. It's an SPN case that investigates the murder of several wives by their husbands, and although the men are guilty, they have been driven to it by their "ideal woman" with whom they have been carrying on an affair. The episode then transposes this issue onto Sam and Dean by having the instigator, a Siren, turns the two against one another by suggesting he would be a better replacement for the other brother. Their relationship has been fracturing for the whole season, and in this episode their confrontation reveals that the root of the issue is power, over who is going to control their lives and determine their future. It also suggests that both have held deep illusions about one another for a long time and neither is sure what to believe anymore.

"New Moon" carried out what was originally intended to be a full-season storyline for Oz and Willow, who had had a two-year relationship by this point. Werewolf Oz has been irresistibly attracted to another musician, Veruca, who it turns out is another werewolf. She attempts to seduce him by suggesting that he is trying to pretend he is someone he isn't, that he is the wolf ALL the time, not simply at the full moon. She urges him to abandon his sense of duty to humans, and to fulfill himself. Willow ends up discovering them and at first plans to kill Veruca but then can't go through with it. Veruca has no such compunction, but Oz appears in time to kill Veruca himself, both of them morphed into their wolf forms. Oz and Willow never have much discussion over his infidelity, although their history where Willow was first unfaithful to him does get raised again. More importantly though, what Veruca told him was true. Oz can no longer lie to himself about who he is, nor what he is capable of. He leaves to both keep Willow safe and to find himself. 

I think it's not hard to see the connections here to the three central storylines told in "The Gypsy and the Hobo" –- an episode apparently titled for Suzanne and Don. In each a woman is disappointed in a man, although in some cases such as Roger and Annabelle, the woman originally broke the man's heart. In this episode Roger does the right thing, he turns Annabelle down, and he helps Joan as requested. One suspects though, that this was driven less by a sense of faithfulness to his wife than because he still has feelings for Joan, and doesn't for Annabelle. Nevertheless, it was Roger who was left by both these women, and while money and status played a part for each, ultimately neither had faith in him.

Joan's anger at Greg suggests that she's neither over Roger herself, nor is she all that thrilled at the compromise she has made for herself. One wonders if Mona misses Roger as much as Annabelle apparently did. What seems critical here is that neither knew Roger quite as well as they thought they did. Both seem to have underestimated his persistent feelings for them, and replaced him with men who were lacking in that regard. This seemed to me to echo Dean and Sam's lack of confidence in one another, and their rather literal effort to replace one another with someone who, in SaV, seemed to offer everything they wanted but didn't actually care about them at all.

By comparison, Betty always knew there were mysteries about Don that she didn't know (shades of Jess from SPN there) but she was willing to let these things go so long as she was the center of Don's world. However, it must have been clear to her for some time that she has been anything but. The episode suggests that a lot of this was because Don could never truly be himself with her. This part seemed to echo Willow and Oz to me. For several days every month Oz would literally become something else to Willow, someone she really didn't know. Oz left because he had already hurt Willow, but also because he knew he had the potential to do much more damage. 

Of course, the connection between the stories is only on the surface. Oz and Willow got together because they truly had a lot in common in terms of interests and intelligence. Other than their looks, I've never had any idea what Betty and Don see in one another. She seems to me to be as much a trophy to him as any of his advertising awards, both a symbol of his success and a form of camouflage. The show hasn't been successful at really showing me what Suzanne and Don have in common either, but clearly the incident with her brother in the previous episode triggered Don's guilt meter. As we see in his story to Betty about his brother Adam, Suzanne was the better person, doing what Don did not.

Ultimately, the episode ends with a shift. Betty may not know about Don's latest affairs but she now holds the same power that Cooper held over him, which forced him to sign their contract. Betty has always been the hind end of the dog in their relationship and her options still aren't great. She could ruin Don but that certainly wouldn't help her in the long run. And Don's not likely to change, but at least he no longer holds all the cards.

The show's portrayal of men has always been rather existentialist. They have both freedom and dread, as well as a profound confusion about who they are, which is metaphorically expressed through Don's false identity. Though the women aren't always certain either, they are much better defined individuals on the show, particularly Joan, and they are more likely to know what they want.

Don and Roger are a particularly interesting comparison because they seem to react to other people's needs in very different ways. Don is more empathetic with people, and this can lead him to be spontaneously giving. This is particularly true when he sees people as being like himself, with secrets, or ambitious but discriminated against. But he has a complete distaste for people needing things from him. This seems to be at the core of his resentment of Betty, although she is so neglected it's hard to imagine she was very needy to start with. Don has always quickly turned against anyone he feels to be demanding things of him, however connected to them he has felt in the past. 

Roger, on the other hand, seems to have no empathy for anyone and he tends to treat everyone in more or less the same indifferent fashion. However, he seems to need to be needed, and, of course, admired. And as a result he seems to me much more susceptible to doing what other people want of him.

This episode was all about intimate relationships and their compromises, but really just about every couple that's ever appeared on Mad Men is compromised in some way. Interestingly, the only couple that actually seems to _be_ a couple on the show, Harry and his wife, are people we hardly ever see together. Identity and power though, seem to be an intertwined struggle that Noxon and Humphris seem to enjoy exploring.


End file.
